Tuesday, 31 August 2010

The Flying Cyclist's Trans-Australia Record attempt

I am always fascinated by people doing mad things for the sake of it so I was delighted to hear about the Flying Cyclist via Facebook this morning.

The Flying Cyclist is 25 year old Chris Marris, and he is currently about 1,000km into an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for cycling from Perth, on the west coast of Australia, to Sydney, on the east coast. That's a total of approx 4,000km.

To break the current record of 8 days, 10 hours and 57 minutes, held by fellow Australian, Richard Vollebregt, Chris will have to spend up to 20 hours a day on his bike, covering approx 550km on each of those days (the equivalent of Paris to Amsterdam). That will be done while traversing some of the most hostile roads in the world, including the infamous Nullarbor Plain, over 1,000km of treeless, arid, flat plain, where daytime temperatures can reach nearly 50 C, before plummeting to almost freezing at night.

Chris is using his attempt to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, a uniquely Australian, not-for-profit institution, which provides medical services to the most remote and inaccessible parts of Australia.